Cowboys at Giants: 3 bold predictions for Sunday’s matchup

The 2023 NFL regular season has arrived. The Dallas Cowboys kick off their season by traveling to New York to take on their division rivals, the New York Giants. Before the two teams battle it out on Sunday night, here are three bold predictions for this season-opening matchup.

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1) Both teams combine for under 20 total points in the first half

While both the Giants and Cowboys have offenses that figure to put up plenty of points this season, we won’t see that on Sunday night. Dallas’ starters on offense did not take a single-game snap during the preseason, which will cause them to get out of the gate a bit slow in the first half.

Last year in their Week 1 matchup against the Buccaneers, we saw the Cowboys offense look completely out of sorts all game long. While they won’t struggle to that capacity, it will take some time for them to gel as a unit and get things going. On the Giants’ side of things, getting off to a slow start won’t be shaking off the rust, it will be a byproduct of Dallas talented defense.

Rain is also in the forecast, making it even more likely that we see a bit of a sluggish, defensive-battle between these two teams, at least for the first half.

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2) CeeDee Lamb torches the Giants’ secondary, going for over 125 receiving yards and scoring two touchdowns

It may take the Cowboys’ offense a couple of quarters to get going, but once they do, there’s going to be no stopping CeeDee Lamb. The 24-year-old wideout loves playing against the Giants and has more receptions (37) and receiving yards (494) against New York than any other team in the league.

The Giants selected cornerback Deonte Banks with their first-round pick in this past year’s draft, and the 22-year-old out of Maryland is going to get welcome to the NFL night courtesy of CeeDee Lamb. Dallas’ WR1 goes for over 125 receiving yards and finds the end zone twice, including a 60+ yard reception in the second half.

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3) Dak Prescott does not throw an interception

In reality, this may not be all that much of a bold prediction, but if you look at the recent media narrative surrounding Dak Prescott, it is. All summer long the talk of every sports show was Dak’s interception problem and how was he going to fix it.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret the ESPN’s of the world don’t want you to know, Dak actually does NOT have an interception problem and his 15 INTs last year were a result of a lot of bad luck. Shocking, I know, but the stats back it up.

Prescott’s career interception percentage of 2.0% is tied for the ninth-lowest in NFL history. He also has been under that 2.0% mark in five of his seven in the league, including being at 1.7% or lower three times.

StatMuse

Dak is going to throw interceptions this season just like every quarterback in the league is, but when it’s all said and done he’ll end the year with around 9-10 picks and a 1.7% interception percentage just like he has done his whole career.

Prescott starts off reversing the narrative with a strong, interception-free performance on Sunday night where he absolutely takes over the game in the second half.